So What Do Vacuum Tumblers Do?

So What Do Vacuum Tumblers Do?

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Tumblers are also known as barrel tumblers and drum tumblers circulate its contents to deburr, burnish and clean, however, in the meat industry contents are rotated and flipped onto itself with a liquid marinade, in a process called massaging to pull in moisture into the meat for more flavorful food.

A Vacuum Tumbler is used primarily in the meat industry to remove air from the tumbling process; this method pulls air out of the drum and forces the marinade into the food. Vacuum Tumblers are used by butchers and well-renowned chefs to enhance the flavor and quality of their food.

The process itself is simple; the process starts with placing the meat into the drum of the tumbling machine along with a liquid solution, along with spices and other flavors that are desired to be infused. Then the air is gradually removed by drawing a high capacity vacuum. When the drum rotates, the meat is infused with liquid instead of air due to the different atmospheric pressure and vacuum pressure.

The meat contracts to a point where it must accept the liquid in place of air and it continues to expand in the vacuum, exposing more of the tissue and causing a cellular absorption reaction. The tumbler drum is designed to lift the meat, so the tumbling food alternates between two environments. One is partially airless; the other is an underwater environment. The alternating environments, combined with the properties of the all-natural marinade, cause disruption of bacterial cell membranes, resulting in a reduction of bacteria and food-borne illnesses.

The rotation continues for a period of time until the meat appears uniform and the desired marinade flavoring is achieved. In other words, tumble to taste – some chefs and butchers have their own recipe and design their tumbling process around their taste. Yes, you can taste the difference!

After the vacuum tumbling process the infused meat will reduce the oxidation process and extend the deterioration process, resulting in a longer shelf life – for even longer shelf life the contents can be put into a vacuum sealed bag; where it can stay fresh for days, perhaps even a week longer under the appropriate conditions.

To get learn more about the process you can contact your local butcher or Google it to see a video on Youtube. Or you can watch our vacuum tumbling machine in action on our Youtube channel. If you need assistance with finding a meat tumbler or a vacuum packing machine – just give us a call, we’re always available.

So what else can you use a non-vacuum tumbler for?

There are many applications for tumblers across many different industries. As we just described the primary use for a Vacuum Tumbler machine, I think its fair to highlight the other kinds of tumbling applications are used in different industries.

Textiles – this one surprises a lot of people, but the textile industry used tumblers to dye textiles, apply chemicals, quickly heat, wash and dry textiles in bulk.

Another application that is used in various industries is polishing – when applying the finish polishing to metals for jewelry, tools and other metals, a general tumbler is used to make this possible.

So what is the best tumbler you can buy?

There are many factors to consider when purchasing a tumbler; beyond the capacity and size, you really have to consider duty cycles and use case – in other words, you need to think about how you’re going to use the tumbler – if you’re not going to use it a lot or every day, then it might be okay to go with something inexpensive, but if your business will depend on a continuous operation, then perhaps it might be best to pay attention to the details like the electric motor class and maintenance cycles.

Ultimately, you would want to look for limitations or constraints that will slow you or your operation down. Be mindful of maintenance cycles that result in downtime and since parts take time to ship – it might be a good idea to purchase from a reliable source. If you have additional questions, contact us or call us.

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Since 1989 Promarks has been manufacturing commercial quality packaging and processing machinery for the food and meat industry. We strive to exceed industry standards for food packaging and processing machines for beef, pork, poultry, cheese, seafood and other food products.